What is an assembly point?
An assembly point is the designated place people go after evacuating, so that they are clear of the building and can be accounted for. It is named in the evacuation procedure and signed on site.
Its two jobs are separation and accounting. People need to be far enough from the building to be safe from it and from falling material, and someone needs to be able to establish who is out.
It has to work in the weather and at night. An assembly point that becomes unusable in rain produces a crowd that drifts back towards the building, which is the failure mode that actually occurs.
It also has to stay clear of the route fire appliances will take. An assembly point on the approach road obstructs the response it was meant to make way for.
In practice
A sign naming an assembly point that was moved during building works.
The new point is fine. Eleven signs around the building name the old one, which is now inside a hoarding.
Assembly points change for construction, for landscaping and for neighbouring development, and the signage lags every time.
A dated notice makes the lag visible to anybody reading it.
What goes wrong in practice
- Located too close to the building, or beneath it.
- On the route appliances use to approach.
- Named in the procedure but never signed, so only regular staff know where it is.